282 ON THE ETHNOGRAPHY AND PHILOLOGY OF THE 
is very limited. A brief list of the ‘‘ Words and Vocabularies” of the Shyenne language is 
given in Ludwig’s “ Literature of American Aboriginal Languages,” to which nothing has 
been added up to this date. In the Archeologia Americana, vol. ii, p. 379, is a list of the 
names of the Shyenne chiefs who signed the treaty of July, 1825. It so happens, that all 
the names were given in the Dakota, and are, therefore, no contribution to the Shyenne. 
Reise des Prinzen Maximilian zu Wied, Coblenz, 1839-1841, 11 vols., 4to. On pp. 
487-489, about sixty-seven words of the Shyenne are given, apparently very correctly taken. 
The vocabulary secured by Lieut. Abert, U.S. A., is, perhaps, the most valuable one 
ever taken, though quite brief. Great use was made of this by Mr. Albert Gallatin, in 
his Comparison of the Indian Languages. See Transactions of the American Ethnological 
Society, vol. ii, pp. cxvi-cxviii. It was first published in Abert’s Report of his Examina- 
tion of New Mexico, in the years 1846 and 1847, pp. 467-518, forming a part of Emory’s 
Notes of a Military Reconnoissance, &c., Washington, 1848, 8vo. It seems that it was 
from Lieut. Abert’s vocabulary, that Gallatin first detected the affinity of the Shyenne to 
languages of the Algonkin stock. “Out of forty-seven Shyenne words for which we have 
equivalents in other languages, there are thirteen which are indubitably Algonkin, and 
twenty-five which have affinities more or less remote with some of the languages of that 
family,”* 
A vocabulary of nearly three hundred words is published in Schoolcraft’s “ History and 
Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States,” Part III, pp. 8346-459. John S. 
Smith, to whom the credit is given for this vocabulary, is the only white man who ever 
claimed to have anything like a thorough acquaintance with the Shyenne tongue. He 
was interpreter and trader for that tribe for many years. He at this time (1860) keeps 
a trading-house near the mouth of Cache la Poudre creek, on the South Platte. 
So far as we can ascertain, the above list comprises everything of an original character, 
published in regard to the Shyenne language, up to this date. 
The following grammatical notes and vocabulary, were obtained during the winter of 
1859 and ’60, at the Indian Agency on the South Platte, about one hundred miles west of 
Fort Laramie. I was fortunate in securing the services of a very intelligent Shyenne In- 
dian, who spoke, in addition to his own tongue, the Dakota with almost equal fluency. 
His wife was a very intelligent Dakota woman, who understood the English language 
quite well. With the aid of a Dakota interpreter, I would pronounce the words from the 
Dakota Dictionary, published by the Smithsonian Institution, and the Indian would then 
give the corresponding words in the Shyenne language. I, therefore, feel much confidence 
in the accuracy of the materials thus obtained. 
* Gallatin, Transactions American Ethnological Society, vol. ii, p. exi. Langue des Indiens Cheyennes (nu- 
merals), Bulletin de la Société de Géographie, Paris, 1846, 8vo. Third series, tome vi, pp. 384-386. 
